Mendieta

He was excellent in his first season, the season we won the cup. You could tell he was a cut above, but other than Juninho and Zenden, others weren't quite on the same level.

Then did his cruciate at the start of the next season, the one we finished 7th. Missed most, if not all that season and was never the same again. Which is a massive shame because imagine the pre-cruciate injury version linking up with Jimmy and Viduka.

That Man United game came out of the blue. He was pretty much done for us by that point. Although it wasn't his last game, I think it was his last good game. Hell of a swansong.
 
Humpty said:
I’m not saying he was terrible far from it. He was good but he couldn’t get a game for us in his preferred position and I think that speaks volumes.
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He played most of his games on the right

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

Gaizka Mendieta - Detailed stats

These are the detailed performance data of Karriereende player Gaizka Mendieta. The website contains a statistic about the performance data of the player.
www.transfermarkt.co.uk www.transfermarkt.co.uk
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
He played most of his games on the right

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

Gaizka Mendieta - Detailed stats

These are the detailed performance data of Karriereende player Gaizka Mendieta. The website contains a statistic about the performance data of the player.
www.transfermarkt.co.uk www.transfermarkt.co.uk
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He mostly played in a centre midfield three for Valencia where he made his name. A lot of those appearance figures as a right midfielder on transfermarkt were clocked for us and out wide right where he was less effective.
 
Ebor said:
'Didn’t quite live up to his reputation here.'

LOL, he was total class for us. He'd had a bad season before, otherwise he'd be nowhere near us. Brilliant player and lovely fella
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He was the best midfielder in the world and held one of the most expensive transfer records at one time. So I feel pretty comfortable with that statement.

Zenden was a better midfielder for us during that period.
 
Humpty said:
In what sense? He wasn’t even our best midfielder during his spell here. He wasn’t a great right midfielder at premier league level. Played his better stuff through the middle but didn’t play there that often.

Lots of revisionism going on because of his name.
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I’m inclined to agree with this. Most fans moaned about him constantly too.

He was inconsistent for us at best. Certainly had a fair few very good performances which is what I think a lot of people like to remember him for. Certainly was capable of playing a killer pass. But he rarely ran and dictated games in the way he had at Valencia, which was what we’d been expecting him to do (though he didn't at Barcelona or Lazio).

He only really had one season as a mainstay in the first team, and that wasn’t even all down to injury.

Good player, when he was fit and in the mood, like a lot of our “superstars” of the 1995-2008 era. Wouldn't get in my all-time Boro 1-11.
 
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Humpty said:
He was the best midfielder in the world and held one of the most expensive transfer records at one time. So I feel pretty comfortable with that statement.

Zenden was a better midfielder for us during that period.
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But Zenden was poor when he first came here. Like the songs says. Was great later.
 
It was a great coup signing him, and I enjoyed his time here in a fruitful period for the club in general. However, I may be in the minority but I can count on one hand the number of games he really stood out and ran the game. He had some good moments but most players do.
 
Humpty said:
Didn’t quite live up to his reputation here. Wasn’t helped by being played out on the right though. Always thought the pace of the Prem took away a little bit of his genius. Had some very good games though, like people have said the United game stands out.
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Exactly what I have always thought, certainly had a lot of brilliant moments but he never hit the heights I expected.

Looking back, though, I can’t help thinking I might have been wrong.
 
Paulroddam7 said:
Exactly what I have always thought, certainly had a lot of brilliant moments but he never hit the heights I expected.

Looking back, though, I can’t help thinking I might have been wrong.
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No point judging him now off a YouTube compilation.

At the time he definitely wasn’t as good as Zenden. Undoubtedly his best season was 2003/2004, and he wasn’t even our best player that season. In fact there’s an argument that he wasn’t as good that season as Juninho (top scorer), Boateng (who won player of the year), Zenden or even Southgate/Ehiogu/Schwarzer.

Good player, but not great.
 
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festa5 said:
He was excellent in his first season, the season we won the cup. You could tell he was a cut above, but other than Juninho and Zenden, others weren't quite on the same level.

Then did his cruciate at the start of the next season, the one we finished 7th. Missed most, if not all that season and was never the same again. Which is a massive shame because imagine the pre-cruciate injury version linking up with Jimmy and Viduka.

That Man United game came out of the blue. He was pretty much done for us by that point. Although it wasn't his last game, I think it was his last good game. Hell of a swansong.
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Exactly this! Injury finished him unfortunately but was utterly brilliant before that levels above as they say these days.
 
I don’t get the “cut above” stuff. We all expected him to be a cut above, but he wasn’t, except with occasional flashes of brilliance. We all hoped he would kick on the next season but he got injured.

Boateng won supporters’ player of the year. He certainly wasn’t a cut above Juninho, Zenden, Southgate or Ehiogu either.

Admittedly he probably was a cut above Job/Maccarone/Mills/Queudrue. He was a good player in a good team, but I don’t agree at all that he was somehow “above” the rest of the team. The fact Boateng beat him to player of the year should be a reminder of that.
 
atypical_boro said:
I don’t get the “cut above” stuff. We all expected him to be a cut above, but he wasn’t, except with occasional flashes of brilliance. We all hoped he would kick on the next season but he got injured.

Boateng won supporters’ player of the year. He certainly wasn’t a cut above Juninho, Zenden, Southgate or Ehiogu either.

Admittedly he probably was a cut above Job/Maccarone/Mills/Queudrue. He was a good player in a good team, but I don’t agree at all that he was somehow “above” the rest of the team. The fact Boateng beat him to player of the year should be a reminder of that.
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We saw flashes of the great Mendieta and they were great to see but they were flashes.

He wouldn’t have been here if he was still doing it consistently.
 
Humpty said:
He mostly played in a centre midfield three for Valencia where he made his name. A lot of those appearance figures as a right midfielder on transfermarkt were clocked for us and out wide right where he was less effective.
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Got to agree but I blame McClaren as he preferred a more defensive duo in centre midfield even though we alredy had one of the best in Boateng who Mendietta should have played alongside and provided better ammunition for the some of best strikers we've had available.I just think McClaren didn't trust flair players in midfield, see also his treatment of Juninho
 
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